Hidden trove of suspected Nazi artifacts found in Argentina

[Hammock Parties]

Amazing. The Nazis really did flee to Argentina.



http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ntina-48145123

In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

"Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. "This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects."

Among the disturbing items were toys that Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas.

Police say one of the most-compelling pieces of evidence of the historical importance of the find is a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes.

"We have turned to historians and they've told us it is the original magnifying glass" that Hitler was using, said Nestor Roncaglia, head of Argentina's federal police. "We are reaching out to international experts to deepen" the investigation.

The photograph was not released to the public, but was shown to The Associated Press on the condition that it not be published.

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery.

Authorities did not identify the collector who remains free but under investigation by a federal judge.

"There are no precedents for a find like this. Pieces are stolen or are imitations. But this is original and we have to get to the bottom of it," said Roncaglia.

Police are trying to determine how the artifacts entered Argentina.

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

As leading members of Hitler's Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes, Josef Mengele fled to Argentina and lived in Buenos Aires for a decade. He moved to Paraguay after Israeli Mossad agents captured Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, who was also living in Buenos Aires. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while swimming in a beach in the town of Bertioga.

While police in Argentina did not name any high-ranking Nazis to whom the objects might have originally belonged, Bullrich noted there were medical devices.

"There are objects to measure heads that was the logic of the Aryan race," she said.

Ariel Cohen Sabban, president of the DAIA, a political umbrella for Argentina's Jewish institutes, called the find "unheard of" in Argentina.

"Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany," Cohen told the AP

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[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

The stuff itself is interesting, but the story of how it got there is going to be the most interesting part in my mind. That stuff was big enough that it wasn't just hand-carried. Someone shipped it, and it was someone who was in the inner circle.

Another article that I read said that it included some instruments to measure head size that dated from the 1930s. The Nazis were using these to build theories about genetic dominance. The fact that those instruments were included point toward a guy like Mengele.

I guess it's possible too that this was a hand-assembled collection from years after the war, but since some of these items appeared to belong to Hitler or his inner circle, I'd be more inclined to think that it's always existed as a collection.

I bet one of the chief Nazi goobers was bringing stuff over before the war ended so he could have a stash of stuff to sell in his old age. This is either a descendant's house or it's the person he was selling stuff to.

Or these items were stashed with the hope to start the 4th Reich in South America. That was the speculation by the History Chanel researchers. The main inner circle, including Hitler were to use it as a base to rebuild their failed dreams of domination.

It would have been great to have definitive proof that such an evil person as Hitler was dead, but that was not the case. There is probably more evidence he escaped.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Chief_For_Life58

Yeah but cant he just say a family member gifted them to him and thats that. Also I still don't see why they can just walk in and take it

I think that is the crux of the whole situation- What family member? If it was a known war criminal, their property would be automatically forfeited.

Interpol has international jurisdiction when it comes to stolen antiquities.

This is a pretty significant and historic collection- not to mention extremely valuable.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by JakeF

There is a huge difference between forgetting the past sins or memorializing them. You will have a bunch of nuts traveling to "mecca" to worship all the Nazi symbols from the past.

They'd be nuts regardless of whether or not they made a trip to stare at some artifacts.

[ThaVirus]

Speaking of, I went to Siesta Key beach for the weekend. I saw a white guy with the Nazi SS lightning bolts tatted on the back of his neck.

I couldn't get over how dumb that is..

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Chief_For_Life58

Yeah I dont know if I believe the story of Hitler escaping to south america or something. I feel like if youre Hitler you have too much pride to run with your tail between your legs. You go out in style and commit suicide. right?

I thought it was pretty common knowledge that he relocated to England after the war.

[Hydrae]

Originally Posted by Chief_For_Life58

Thats cool. Like what?

My coworkers dad was in the army regiment that liberate Dachau. He killed a nazi officer and took his luger. My coworker still has it.

I had the chance to visit Dachau in 1976. Just thinking of it 40+ years later still gives me chills. I can't imagine being there during the liberation.

[Kiimo]

Originally Posted by JakeF

Destroy it all, don't keep and let it become some kind of display.

Originally Posted by Hoover

This point of view just drives me nuts. The worst thing we can do is ignore or pretend that things in the past did not happen. Now I'm not for flying the stars and bars or having swastikas tiled in to my pool, so this new facination with erasing the sins of the past is not wise.

I was recently in Nuremberg, Germany and found something interesting that they do with Nazi buildings and memorbilia.

They don't destroy it, lest they appear to be trying to bury history. But then again they don't maintain it, lest they appear to be glorifying the past.

So you have all these Nazi buildings and what not falling into disrepair. There it is, it happened, look if you want. We're going to move on with our lives.

I thought it was a pretty shrewd course of action.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Hydrae

I had the chance to visit Dachau in 1976. Just thinking of it 40+ years later still gives me chills. I can't imagine being there during the liberation.

A 100-year study of visitor surveys at Dachau shows a considerable improvement in visitor experience beginning in the mid-1940s. The improvement is believed to be due to the addition of a gift shop and snack bar.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Speaking of, I went to Siesta Key beach for the weekend. I saw a white guy with the Nazi SS lightning bolts tatted on the back of his neck.

I couldn't get over how dumb that is..

Dude had probably been to prison for a while.

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

What were the Nazis doing with harmonicas?

baaaad things
just nasty
don't ask

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Dude had probably been to prison for a while.

Or maybe he's just a naive Chargers fan with a vindictive tattoo artist.

[big nasty kcnut]

Originally Posted by ShiftyEyedWaterboy

Yeah, my grandfather brought a ton of Nazi/Allied stuff back from WWII. I'll pass it down if I ever have kids, otherwise, I'll probably donate it to a museum one day.

I want it.

[big nasty kcnut]

I have my grandpa ww2 coin collection. I would love to own more ww2 collectables.

[Kiimo]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Speaking of, I went to Siesta Key beach for the weekend. I saw a white guy with the Nazi SS lightning bolts tatted on the back of his neck.

I couldn't get over how dumb that is..

The SS bolts are typically used as a symbol of white supremacy but there is one context in which this is not necessarily always so. Decades ago, some outlaw biker gangs appropriated several Nazi-related symbols, including the SS bolts, essentially as shock symbols or symbols of rebellion or non-conformity. Thus SS bolts in the context of the outlaw biker subculture does not necessarily denote actual adherence to white supremacy. However, because there are a number of racists and full-blown white supremacists within the outlaw biker subculture, sometimes it actually is used as a symbol of white supremacy. Often the intended use and meaning of the SS bolts in this context is quite ambiguous and difficult to determine.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Kiimosabi

The SS bolts are typically used as a symbol of white supremacy but there is one context in which this is not necessarily always so. Decades ago, some outlaw biker gangs appropriated several Nazi-related symbols, including the SS bolts, essentially as shock symbols or symbols of rebellion or non-conformity. Thus SS bolts in the context of the outlaw biker subculture does not necessarily denote actual adherence to white supremacy. However, because there are a number of racists and full-blown white supremacists within the outlaw biker subculture, sometimes it actually is used as a symbol of white supremacy. Often the intended use and meaning of the SS bolts in this context is quite ambiguous and difficult to determine.

He looked like the stereotypical white biker.

He was also wearing suspenders to keep his shorts from falling. Superior genetics my ass.